- YouTube settles with frivolous/vexatious litigant
Source: Engadget
“Following a similar lawsuit earlier this year, Google has settled with a minor known as ‘R.K.C.’ who claimed that social media platforms harmed them, Reuters reported. Terms of the settlement were confidential, the lawyers said yesterday. The same plaintiff also sued Meta, Snap and TikTok, with those trials set to proceed next month. YouTube has thousands of similar lawsuits pending, so this second case represents a test run for the many to follow. … More than 3,300 [frivolous/vexatious] lawsuits involving social media addiction [sic] are pending in California state courts, and another 2,600 were brought by people, school districts, municipalities and states in California federal court.” (06/24/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2200409/youtube-settles-early-test-case-over-social-media-harm-to-children/
- North Korea: Kim unveils 5,000-ton destroyer, touting nuclear capabilities
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“North Korea has commissioned a 5,000-ton destroyer that leader Kim Jong Un touts as a symbol of the country’s growing naval and nuclear capabilities, state media reported on Wednesday, as Pyongyang seeks to expand its ability to project military power at sea. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim told a commissioning ceremony on Tuesday at the western port of Nampo that warships such as the Choe Hyon show that the nuclear armament of his navy is progressing as planned. … After years of spurring ballistic missile development, Kim has shifted his focus more towards naval capabilities, including the ongoing construction of a nuclear-powered submarine. Naval capabilities were also a key focus when Kim outlined his five-year military goals at February’s Workers’ Party congress, which included calls for intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of underwater launches.” (06/24/26)
- SC: Wilson wins GOP gubernatorial primary
Source: NBC News
“State Attorney General Alan Wilson has won the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina, NBC News projected Tuesday, after a closely watched runoff that featured President Donald Trump’s unusual double endorsement of two candidates. Wilson is now heavily favored heading into the general election in South Carolina’s first open governor’s race since 2010. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster was term-limited and could not seek re-election. Democratic candidate Jermaine Johnson won his primary this month.” (06/23/26)
- Peru: Fujimori Secures Unbeatable Lead in Presidential Election
Source: US News & World Report
“Conservative Keiko Fujimori gained an insurmountable lead in Peru’s presidential runoff late on Tuesday, setting her on track to assume the presidency. Fujimori, a four-time presidential hopeful and the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, now has 50.11% of the votes, putting her ahead of leftist rival Roberto Sanchez by 43,386 votes. There remain only 40,213 potential votes to be counted, according to data from Peru’s ONPE electoral authority. The electoral authority has yet to officially declare a winner and plans to do so in mid-July. Fujimori’s expected victory deepens Latin America’s rightward shift, following outsider Abelardo De La Espriella’s election in Colombia on Sunday. Voters concerned about crime have flocked to hardline candidates. Earlier on Tuesday, Sanchez alleged that ‘fraud was underway,’ without providing evidence, and said he would refuse to recognize the results of the election, raising the prospect of a prolonged political crisis in Peru.” (06/24/26)
- TX: Anti-gang shooter, seven political prisoners sentenced
Source: Associated Press
“A former U.S. Marine reservist and seven others were sentenced Tuesday to decades in prison over a shooting last year that wounded a police officer during a demonstration at a Texas immigration [concentration camp]. Prosecutors called the crime an act of terrorism and said the eight were linked to the leftist militant group antifa. The defendants’ attorneys denied any antifa ties and family members expressed shock and anger over the stiff sentences. Benjamin Song, the Marine reservist who was convicted of opening fire during the July 4 demonstration outside the Prairieland [concentration camp] near Dallas, was sentenced to 100 years in prison, the maximum punishment. The seven others sentenced in Fort Worth courtrooms received prison terms ranging from 30 to 70 years.” (06/23/26)
- Callais Affects More Than Just Congress
Source: Liberal Currents
by Steve Kennedy“Most attention surrounding Callais has focused on congressional maps, particularly in Louisiana and other Southern states where Black voters have successfully challenged racially discriminatory district lines since the passage of the VRA. But the decision will have effects up and down the ballot, including for races as consequential as for state supreme courts.” (06/24/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/callais-affects-more-than-just-congress/
- State of Failure
Source: Quillette
by Brian Stewart“Trump ignored Clausewitz, and disaster ensued.” (06/24/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/06/24/state-of-failure-iran-israel-trump-epic-fury/
- Your Brain on Rage
Source: CounterPunch
by Tom H Hastings“I was riding my bike to work, a fun 7-mile commute in a city with bike lanes and a general respect for those who bicycle. Still, a bike vs auto or truck? No chance for the bike rider. … Sure enough, a truck veered right into my lane, the skinny bike lane only separated from auto traffic by a line of paint. I shifted to my extreme right, almost up against the curb. Another couple of inches and the truck would have ended me. In the moment I yelled and gave him a rude gesture with a middle finger. Um … I teach peace, I train deëscalation, and yet … It was the dreaded amygdala hijack, the rising up of the most primitive part of the brain, the limbic lizard brain, taking control when extreme fear activates it.” (06/24/26)
- SCOTUS Unanimously Ruled That the Second Amendment Trumps Anti-Drug Sentiment
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum“The Supreme Court has a history of facilitating the war on drugs by whittling away at civil liberties, to the point that critics have long perceived a ‘drug exception’ to the Bill of Rights. But last week, when the justices unanimously upheld the gun rights of cannabis consumers, they made it clear that there is no drug exception to the Second Amendment.” (06/24/26)
- Is Warsh His Own Man?
Source: The American Conservative
by David Brady“The Fed chair’s first meeting was largely uneventful but laid the groundwork of challenges for his tenure.” (06/24/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/is-warsh-his-own-man/
- Industrial Policies: Even Modest Intervention Creates Market Distortions
Source: Cato Institute
by Jeffrey Miron“Industrial policy — government efforts to favor certain sectors, technologies, or firms — has a long history. Far from a fringe idea, politicians across the spectrum have promoted such policies for centuries. But the results are far more problematic than its current popularity suggests.” (06/23/26)
- Mindless Middleness Was Keir Starmer’s Undoing
Source: The UnPopulist
by Berny Belvedere“Rather than govern on the strength of his supermajority in Parliament, Starmer governed as though he had something to fear, spending his majority appeasing not the Conservatives he had beaten but a Reform he chased rightward as it climbed. Starmer had room to govern boldly. Instead, he governed in a crouch. … The bet was that the right’s goods in gentler packaging would deny the right its market. It failed twice over. The voters he hoped to hold by sounding tougher did not stay; they went to the people who meant it. The voters he might have inspired got nothing to be inspired by. He alienated the left without satisfying the right.” (06/23/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/mindless-middleness-was-keir-starmers
- The Memorandum of Understanding With Iran Reeks of Capitulation
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“As unhappy as Israel may be about it, there appears to be a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MOU) between the United States and Iran. The MOU isn’t a final deal. It really only functions as a framework. Of course, it’s fragile. The durability of the MOU remains uncertain given broader regional tensions, including Israeli operations in Lebanon. Negotiations for a formal agreement are underway in Switzerland, and progress has been reported. The elephant in the room is what the MOU says, specifically regarding reconstruction, economic development, and sanctions relief.” (06/23/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/the-memorandum-of-understanding-with
- What If You Eliminated Personal Property Taxes and Nobody Noticed?
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes“There is a lot of ongoing discussion about eliminating personal property taxes. There have been bills introduced to eliminate them. It’s a major topic of debate around the state, particularly in St. Charles County. Personal property taxes are the taxes levied on your car, boat, livestock, business equipment, farm equipment, and more. … if personal property taxes were eliminated, the Hancock Amendment would allow local governments to then raise real property taxes by the amount lost in personal property taxes. So, if the state eliminated all personal property taxes statewide, it would likely end up as a revenue-neutral switch where we taxed land and buildings slightly more and taxed mobile assets not at all while removing a tax that most people find particularly annoying. I think that would be a modestly beneficial switch; I just don’t want to sell it as a tax cut.” (06/23/26)
- Who & What in LA?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“Last week, the Los Angeles City Council voted to place a charter amendment on the November 3 ballot to facilitate giving noncitizens a vote in city elections.” [editor’s note: Presumably “noncitizen” means “noncitizen of the US,” not “noncitizen of LA.” Sort of like how, as a US citizen, I get to vote in US elections whether I’m also a citizen of France or not – TLK] (06/23/26)
- The Corbett Report, episode 505
Source: The Corbett Report
“I Read The Palantir Manifesto.” (06/23/26)
- The Good Fight, 06/23/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Mark Leonard on Whether Europe is Doomed.” (06/23/26)
- Freakonomics Radio, 06/23/26
Source: Freakonomics
“The World Is (Still) Drowning in Sludge.” (06/23/26)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-world-is-still-drowning-in-sludge/
- Nonzero, 06/23/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“AI and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning | Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov.” (06/23/26)
- Jay Noone on The Mark Edge Show
Source: Free Talk Live
“Jay Noone has built something most people only talk about: a real community of like minded families on a working farm in New Hampshire, where kids learn blacksmithing, animal butchering, diesel mechanics, and how to carry themselves as competent, self reliant people.” (06/23/26)
- Year Zero with Tommy Salmons, 06/23/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Usury and the Soul of Orthodoxy w/Fr Emmanuel Lemelson.” (06/23/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/usury-and-the-soul-of-orthodoxy-w-fr-emmanuel-lemelson/
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/23/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Congress Passes Iran War Powers Resolution, US Launched 68 Airstrikes in Somalia This Year, and More.” (06/23/26)